THE AMERICAN BISONS. 11 



upwards and forwards (sic) [backward, as shown in the figure] ; and when 

 entire the bony parts must have measured, at a reasonable estimate, about 

 four feet ; and allowing the increase in length by the addition of the horny 

 parts to have been only a foot, it would give a probable distance between the 

 tips of the horns to be at least eleven feet." 



Dr. Carpenter also figures " the second true molar of the left upper jaw," 

 found with the skull but not attached to it, which measured along the crown 

 one inch and six tenths by one inch and two tenths. The specimen, how- 

 ever, is too much worn to show any distinctive features. In size it corre- 

 sponds with the teeth from Natchez, Mississippi, described by Dr. Leidy. 



The third specimen of cranial remains thus far known to me as unques- 

 tionably referable to the Bison latifrons consists of two nearly perfect horn- 

 cores, with small fragments of the frontal bones attached. These remains 

 were exhumed about three years since, in Adams County, Ohio, in digging 

 in the gravel on Brush Creek, preparatory to laying the abutments of a 

 bridge, and were first brought to the notice of the scientific world by Dr. 

 0. D. Norton, to whom I am indebted for a small photograph of them, and 

 for the subjoined measurements. They were found about eighteen feet below 

 the surface with remains of the mastodon, and are now in the museum of 

 the Natural History Society of Cincinnati. These horn-cores are nearly 

 entire (see Plate I), lacking only a little of the apical portions, and give 

 the following measurements : — 



Total length measured along the upper or concave side, 32 inches, or 813 mm. 

 " " " lower or convex side, 34 inches, or 853 mm. 



Circumference at base, 20 inches, or 510 mm. 



" ten inches from the base, 16 inches, or 407 mm. 



" fourteen inches from the base, 14^ inches, or 368 mm. 



" twenty-four inches from the base, 9J inches, or 240 mm. 



Width of skull between bases of horn-cores (estimated), 16 inches, or 407 mm. 



They thus about equal in size the specimens above described, and undoubt- 

 edly represent the same species. They indicate also a species so immensely 

 superior in size to the Bison prisms of the Old World as to leave little reason 

 for questioning their distinctness. The largest specimens of the latter rarely 

 exceed a breadth of three to three and a half feet between the tips of the 

 horn-cores, while the same breadth in Bison latifrons must have exceeded 

 twice those dimensions, with proportionally greater thickness. If the proxi- 

 mal two feet of the horn-core were to be removed, the remaining portion 



